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David Lom / NBC News
Huang Annian, a retired professor of American history at Beijing Normal University, casts a ballot in a mock election at the American Embassy in Beijing, China, on Wednesday.
BEIJING — Huang Annian cast his vote this week in his sixth straight U.S. presidential election. But his vote has never been counted.
Huang, a retired professor of American history at Beijing Normal University and a Chinese national who has been casting ballots at U.S. election parties in China for about 25 years, said the Obama-Romney race was especially significant.
“This year was a very important election,” Huang told NBC News from the American Embassy’s party on Wednesday morning, Beijing time. “The most important issue China and the U.S. will face is whether they develop together or tear each other down.”
Hosted by organizations like the American Chamber of Commerce and the American Embassy, the events usually include a mock ballot that allow Chinese nationals to cast a vote.
World leaders welcome Obama's 2nd term - but many challenges wait on his doorstep
That this celebration of American democracy was coming on the eve of a critical, once-a-decade leadership change in China’s ruling Communist Party was not lost on the attendees. It served to contrast the rowdy American election that risked overwhelmed viewers worldwide with too much information, with China’s crucial transfer of power, which has been shrouded in secrecy.
While the candidates are scrutinized and skewered by the media in the U.S., China's new leader Xi Jinping remains a man of mystery among his citizens. NBC's Ian Williams reports
‘I voted’
Past “election” events have been relatively lavish affairs complete with fully catered breakfasts at Western-brand hotel chains. This year’s was more modest. The 400-plus guests – about 100 Chinese nationals, the rest Americans working in China – were only offered light snacks: muffins, cookies and fruit to go with their coffee. A reflection, maybe, of the austere times the American government is experiencing.
Suspicion of US rife as White House contenders batter China
Still, there were abundant signs of celebration – balloons festooned the hotel ballroom and TVs were setup with videos that explained how elections in the United States work and what it means to Americans. Chinese guests who participated in the vote appeared to enjoy the pageantry of voting – going into the booth, filling out the ballot and sliding it into the ballot box.
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Campaigning with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, voting and election results.
By the end of the day many of them were gathering around the booths for photos, “I voted” pins proudly displayed on their jacket lapels.
Among them was Huang.
Huang, a self-described American politics junkie in his 70s who blogs regularly about the U.S. elections, was among the first to arrive. Accompanied by his wife, who has attended every one of the election events with him, the two cheerfully marched up to the voting booths when voting opened.
In the past Huang has cast “winning” votes for the likes of Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.
In the final presidential debate, Mitt Romney says the country needs to get tough on China on currency manipulation and counterfeit products.
This year? His vote went to the eventual winner, Barack Obama, who won over 150 of the 200 ballots cast at the mock election.
All smiles upon exiting the booth, Huang urged embassy staff to invite him and his wife to the 2016 event.
NCBNews.com's The World is Watching series
But he had a more serious message too, urging collaboration, not competition between the countries.
“There will be many more conflicts between China and the U.S., but there will be more cooperation as well because the two countries are codependent,” he said. “China cannot continue to develop without the United States and the U.S. cannot remain on top without China.”
Indeed, when the euphoria of his re-election passes, Obama will face a barrage of issues that will challenge the Sino-US relationship. These range from concerns about trade imbalances that American trade officials say allow China to undercut U.S. competitiveness to Beijing’s concerns about the true intention of the Obama administration’s “pivot” back to the Asia-Pacific region.
Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China Seas
Despite the tensions between the two countries, Obama appears to have been the choice of officials and academics who attended the party.
Neither candidate would have significantly altered the direction of the Sino-U.S. relationship, and Obama provided familiarity and comfort born from experience, professor He Xingqiang told NBC News.
China brings its 1st aircraft carrier into service, joining 9-nation club
“I think both China and the U.S. want to keep stable relations,” the associate professor at the Institute for American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told NBC News after Obama’s victory was announced.
“If Obama gets reelected, he can continue his China policy,” he said. “ If Romney got elected, no big problem for China-U.S. relations, but a little trouble … because Romney has said some tough words about China.”
NBC News’ Johanna Armstrong and Le Li contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Now that they have a glimpse of balloting to go with their knowledge of international finance, pretty soon they'll be just like us.
How many Chinese Anchor Babies voted in this election and is that number growing?
Certainly far less than those anchor babies from Latin America. Furthermore, Eastern Asian (Chinese, Korean, Japanese) anchor babies and their parents also take far less welfare than Latin American anchor babies and their parents. Don't forget how Latino votes for Obama is more than 44% of that of Romney, and Latino support greater government programs including welfare and legalize illegal immigrants.
The USA is NOT a democracy. Dumbazz
The article doesn't say the US is a democracy; it says the mock voting was a "celebration of American democracy". Now, about this "dumbazz..."
I voted. Where are my muffins? On second thought I fear voter fraud will skyrocket with the ever present lure of additional pastries. We are but human, lovers of muffins one and all.
Hey! I didn't even get a sticker saying I voted... say nothing about muffins.
I could not help but to notice the communist Chinese voted three to one for Obama in the mock elections does that tell you anything, I didn't get a muffin either.
And bin Laden hiding Pakistan voted for Romney. There is no correlation.
Around 160 countries out of an approximate total of 200 countries in the world practice the so-called "democracy", but majority of them end up like Venezuela or Zimbabwe, where democratically elected politicians passed laws to confiscate the property and wealth of middle & upper class without any compensation, and give to the poor for free, in the name of "redistribute the wealth" or "helping the poor". This is just another form of commie revolution using votes instead of force. The sad part is that this is approved by the majority of the population, and even the voting pattern in those countries are similar to that of US: higher classes of the society vote more than the lower class, but the wealth distribution is so polarized in these 3rd world countries that the total of all of the middle and upper classes votes combined is still less than those lower class votes, despite the lower class vote less than the middle and upper classes. So, for the lower class, why not vote for yes when you can get something for free without any hard work? This is how such peaceful commie revolutions succeeds in the so-call "democracy". Would you call this obvious disregard and violation of individual wealth and property (which is the essential part of individual right) "democratic"?
The fact is that "democracy" does not work for most of the time, and does not for most of the countries, and does not work for most of the populations in the world. Only a few exception such as European and Anglo-American countries have succeeded in practice "democracy", which is only 25% of the 160 countries that have the so-called democracy. Using these few successful example of "democracy" in Europe & Anglo-America (US & Canada) to claim the "democracy" is good for all is just as absurd as, as stupid as, and as racist as claiming all blacks are criminals by using those blacks convicted to represent the entire black population.
Sadly, USA is increasingly become more socialistic/communistic while China is increasingly become more capitalist:
There's no Obamacare in China where everyone must buy his/her own health insurance. In many states, when governmental employees retire, they can earn as much as when they were working, or even more, plus the retirement medical benefits that remains the same when they were working, a luxury Chinese retirees don't have. Of course, the high cost of retirement benefit here has to be paid by tax payer, most of them who does not have such luxury.
Urban areas have socialized medicine in China whereas the rural areas have privatized medicine. They also have welfare programs and social security in effect.
A Chinese professor of American history? Isn't that like a science professor at a Christian university? Hmm.
Are
you honestly claiming that there are no "science Professors" at
Christian Universities? Are you aware that Yale, Princeton, and Harvard all
began as Christian institutions? Are you completely unaware that a person can
be both a scientist and a Christian such as Sir Isaac Newton who discovered
gravity?
And
are you claiming that it is impossible for a "History Professor" in
China to become aware of and actually accurately teach American History? Is it
not possible that he could safely teach it with less bias than some Americans?
I have no problems with the idea of a Chinese Professor of American History any
more than most intelligent Chinese would have about an American professor of
Chinese History, which incidentally would be far more difficult! I am not at all convinced that in order for
one to be able to learn, understand and teach the history of a certain country
one must be first and foremost a citizen before his views of that history can
be trusted! In fact, with our current revisionist historians at work in this
country we may have to turn to a Chinese Professor of American History someday
to learn the truth about it ourselves! It
seems to me that your opinion in this matter is an uniformed one clouded by
nationalistic, racist, and elitist views of the world instead of factual analysis
of reality.
I would have preferred that the professor had taken the opportunity to
demonstrate for his countrymen that he could have voted for Ron Paul as a write
in candidate showing that Americans do not have to follow the dictates of the
two main parties in any election but can vote any way they want. But he voted instead for President Obama. His
view of America from afar was clear enough for him to see which way most
Americans were going to vote and it was a choice less dangerous for him in the
country he must live and work in and more in line with the communist ideology
that pervades in his world. A close
analysis of why, not a Chinese, but a Communist would vote for Obama would be a
far more revealing and useful story than this notion of a Chinese vote. Such an
analysis would involve reading why the communist party USA gave their support
for this president instead of running a candidate of their own. I do not know and cannot now assert that their
support for him is merely because he was the socialist in the race or if it was
because they know full well that he is in fact a communist. It appears to me that there is a very good
likely hood however unfortunate it may be that the latter assertion is closer
to the truth than we may want to admit.